My first "hog dog" wasn't actually a hog dog, she was a cow/combination dog. Her name was Pup and I had known the dog for years. I coon hunted some at the time (before I knew better...
) and coon hunted on the ranch where Pup was. The guy that lived on the ranch let her run loose most of the time as he had a boy with a mental disability and even though the boy was about 14-15 years old, he was like 3-4 mentally. They could let the boy outside to play by himself, as long as Pup was around as nothing was going to get close to him. Not people, not snakes, not other dogs, nothing.
The thing was that this was a cow dog that they used to pen cattle on the place. The guy that owned here also hog hunted her at night and she had scars all over her. She would sometimes come to a treed coon if we were close enough she could hear us and got to where she could trail up a coon and tree , and I mean bark on the tree, as good as any hound we had.
So she wasn't just a hog dog. But like all of us, she got older. She got to where she couldn't get ahead of the cows, didn't hardly have any teeth left , etc and the guy said if they don't work, they don't eat on that ranch and he was going to cull her. I had known the dogs for years and really liked her. She had to be about 10 years old at that time. He asked if I wanted her and I jumped on it. I mean this was a REAL cur dog, my first. She was a yellow bob tailed partial ringneck about 60 lbs.
I never put her on hogs, but did use her on some of my cattle. And she took to me like we had been together all our lives. I bred her to a rough red blackmouth cur a buddy had named Hub. I mean he was ROUGH. He would catch and hold most cows by himself. They got called to clean out a lot of pastures where guys had lost their lease or the place had sold. They would rope what they couldn't pen and catch what they couldn't rope with Hub!
One day I was out working with some show calves and a two year old Brahma bull belonging to my neighbor came running down the paved road outside my gate.They were right behind him in a Jeep, trying to get ahead of him and turn or stop him as he was headed to a 4 lane highway about 1/4 mile ahead. Pup was in my stock trailer, out of the way, and I never thought about it, I just flipped the gate open and sent her to the bull. She went under the gate, caught the bull and he flung her off. He kept going towards the highway and I could see a big wreck coming, but Pup came running in, caught him on the nose and anchored him. He was slinging his head and had her off the ground several times, but she held on....with no teeth I am not sure how. Finally he just dropped his head and stood there bawling. Every time he would try to move Pup would clamp down harder We got a rope on him and got him under control.
The funny thing is, Pup was pregnant with Hub pups and was due in two weeks at the time! I just told everyone I was starting to train the pups a little early!!
That was my start in the cur dogs many years ago. Pup was the foundation to my dogs and 6 generations later I can still see her in many of my dogs. A grand old lady that I was fortunate enough to have pass through my life, even if it was for a short time.
